Galileo and Inertia
The video at the right shows what happened when I released the skater after decreasing the slope of the right-hand side of the track.
I found that when the skater is released at the line labeled number 6 on the left-hand side of the track, he will roll back up to the line labeled number 6 on the right-hand side of the track. Note: This only happens in situations in which friction isn't present. In the real world there is friction, and so this experiment wouldn't work quite as well. |
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We have found the same thing that Galileo found. No matter the slopes of the sides of the track, the object will end up at the height at which it started if there is no friction and IF THERE IS A TRACK FOR THE OBJECT TO MOVE BACK UP. If you keep decreasing the slope of the right-hand side of the track, you will keep getting the same result.